With LOTR he had a tendency to cut great scenes and then add his own made-up ones. Only got worse with the novelization for The Hobbit. Why didn't he put out one book for each film of The Hobbit instead of cramming them all together and cutting out so much stuff?

that hack ghostwriter who wrote the tie-in novels to Peter Jackson's (awesome!) The Lord of the Rings? How did they let him get away with forgetting to include the elves at Helm's Deep?! And what's with that Glorfindel (you know, the made up guy who took Arwen's place at the ford) being all glowy and glittery? Is he supposed to be a vampire?

If I can be serious here for a moment, I didn't get much out of Leaf by Niggle, or Roverandom. I haven't read either one in a long time; maybe I'll give them another try someday.

And I agree about CoH, too much angst and tragedy. A real downer, but at least it had some good adventure.

I've not read all of Tolkien's published works but I would have to say The Adventures Of Tom Bombadil.Not that I don't like it, the poems and verses are interesting and funny in the tone of this very strange and peculiar character which is Tom Bombadil. But, if I have to make a choice, he will finish in last place among the others.

I've never read any of the non-Middle-earth stuff like Smith of Wootton Major or Farmer Giles of Ham. Although I love Tolkien's writing, it doesn't interest me quite as much as his legendarium does. To me, the legendarium is what sets Tolkien apart from other writers.

But of the ones I have read, the one I enjoyed the least was Children of Hurin.

Not because it wasn't a good book or it wasn't well-written, because it was both.

I just didn't like it because I don't like Túrin Turambar. He's a stubborn idiot, and the majority of his woes are self-inflicted. So I just don't feel very sympathetic to him, especially when his behavior brings death and ruin to everyone around him.

But his temper and his violent reactions to situations were all Turin.

I thought the opposite: that the situations were just what they were, and Turin's temper and reactions to the situations were manipulated by the curse. My thought was that the curse provoked the darkness and anger in Turin, making it hard (impossible?) for him to deal rationally with the situation. We all have a dark side; most of us keep it under control, but the curse strengthened the darkness in Turin so that he couldn't contain it.

But even if he had never been cursed, I doubt he'd have been Mr Happy Go Lucky.

OK, having been unceremoniously and wantonly pushed off the Tol E. dock into the brine, I should say that I am "rolling in waves laughing." I heard it scares off the sharks. Will let you know if I survive. Thanks for encouraging me to undertake this experiment. Really, thanks.

For some reason, "rolling in waves laughing" makes me think of "Dances with Wolves," that other Tolkien movie authored under a pen name. It was his eco-guilt rewrite of Gandalf's burning of the Hound of Sauron and retinue. Instead of making war, he made peace with an endangered species--good for him.

so impressed that you know tolkien was the ghost writer (and ghost director) of "dances with wolves." the original name of the protagonist (and eponymously named film) was "dances with carcharoth." but you probably knew that.

and, no need to thank me. knowing you are embracing new experiences is reward enough.

is that the waters abound with ice cream scoops of 111 flavors, so I can swim around and eat all I want and flirt with Uinen to make Osse jealous and generally be a happy brat. That's paradise. Sharks seem to prefer ice cream over humans, so unless we're competing for the same chocolate-almond-cinnamon-lembas dough-miruvor flavored scoop, we're on good terms.